There are certain applications of laser radiation that require a beam of radiation including a plurality of discrete wavelengths or colors. Such applications include flow cytometry, genomics, and confocal microscopy. As commercial lasers typically emit radiation at nominally only one wavelength, such a multicolor beam is typically provided by combining the beams of a plurality of lasers using an optical system including a plurality of dichroic-filter-coated beam combiners. The “footprint” of such a system scales with the number of colors, and hence the number of lasers required in the output beam. As the dichroic-combiners form part of a beam alignment chain, each preferably has two accurately polished surfaces, with a dichroic coating on one surface and an antireflection coating on the other. This adds significant cost to a system as more lasers are added. A reduction in the size or cost of a multicolor laser system could expand the range of applications for such a system.